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For the last week, people in portions of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah have watched in horror as a slug of contaminated mine water flushed through the Animas and San Juan Rivers, turning the water a sickeningly shade of orange.

We can relate.

The contamination of the rivers out west was the result of a gold mine being breached. A week after the incident, reports indicate the rivers are returning to their normal color as the heavy metals drop out, but things will never be the same. At least not for a long time, thanks to the three million gallons of metal-laden wastewater that poured from the mine.

Not to downplay the incident, but that’s a drop in the bucket to what we’ve been experiencing in Northeast Pennsylvania for the last 60 years.

Like the residents living along the Animas and San Juan rivers, we also live with mine drainage pouring into our waterways. While they watched a three million slug of mine water sweep through their river, we deal with much more than that every day.

According to Robert Hughes, executive director of the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, the Old Forge borehole spills 60.7 million gallons of acid mine drainage into the Lackawanna River daily.

But that’s not all. Hughes said a breached abandoned mine in Duryea contributes another 14.5 million gallons of AMD each day to the river, which travels a short stretch before emptying the toxic mix into the Susquehanna.

How toxic?

The Old Forge borehole dumps 7,700 pounds of iron into the river each day, and the Duryea mine adds another 2,260 pounds, according to Hughes. There’s also manganese and aluminum pumping out, too, for good measure.

Hughes said the AMD discharges began 60 years ago as mining companies shut down and quit pumping water to prevent it from entering the mines. Once it got in there, the water became contaminated and eventually found its way into our rivers and streams.

Acid mine drainage has impacted and even completely destroyed fisheries and transformed streams once thriving with life into aquatic wastelands.

Still, the incident in Colorado is worse than what we’re experiencing in one regard. Gold mines, according to Hughes, are more laden with dangerous heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium and mercury. We deal mainly with iron, aluminum and manganese.

Still, none of it should be in our rivers and streams.

Another difference between us and Colorado is the three million gallons of water that exited the gold mine is all there was. Once it washed through, it’s gone, although the heavy metals that settled to the bottom will continue to be a concern over the long-term.

Our mine discharges aren’t going away any time soon, if ever.

Hughes said most of the mine pools in our area are already discharging contaminated water, and the volume that exists in the extensive network of underground mines is beyond comprehension.

EPCAMR is working to determine the water storage capacity of all the mines in the region, and they have already come up with daunting figures.

In the Lackawanna Valley, Hughes said, the storage capacity of the mines is 160 billion gallons. That includes 130 billion gallons held in the mine pool under the Scranton area. That’s more than two times the amount of water contained in Lake Wallenpaupack.

Further south, in the Wyoming Valley mine pool, it gets even worse. Hughes said the storage capacity underneath Wyoming Valley is 274 billion gallons. Add it all up, from Forest City to Shickshinny, the mines have a water storage capacity of 434 billion gallons.

While the people out west are outraged and shocked at seeing their river run orange, we’ve been living with it for decades.

And the discharge isn’t going to dry up any time soon.

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By Tom Venesky

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Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky